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Literary fiction recommendations

67 replies

WhoreDing · 04/03/2026 11:20

I'm stumped for what my next batch of books should be.

I enjoy literary fiction and quite bleak stuff.

I've asked ChatGPT but it was pretty useless, recommending books I know I won't like or that are just too wide of the mark.

I've been through the back catalogue of:
Hanya Yanagihara
Kazuo Ishiguro
Yaa Gyasi
Mary Lawson
Charlotte Wood
Megan Nolan
Susanna Clarke
Siri Hustvedt
Benjamin Myers
Andrea Levy
Sarah Waters
Isabelle Allende
CJ Sansom
Daphne du Maurier
Rohinton Mistry
Bernadine Evaristo (apart from Soul Tourists)

To give you some more ideas:
I've enjoyed:
> Disgrace by JM Coetzee but not sure where to start with his other works.
> The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.
> Handmaid's Tale but I've found other Attwood works hard to get into.
> Stoner by John Williams but his other works seen quite different.

I didn't/don't enjoy:
> First Love by Gwendoline Riley (ChatGPT recommendation, just awful)
> Hamnet and MOFs other works actually
> Annie Proulx's work
> The Vegetarian
> God of Small Things
> Eleanor Ferrante's Neapolitan triology
> Long Road to the Deep North
> Anything by Hilary Mantel
> Anything which is too magic realism
> The classics

I'm just coming to the end of my last Charlotte Wood book and am completely out of ideas for where to go next. Help!

OP posts:
ThroughTheRedDoor · 13/03/2026 23:56

Oh how could I forget? For bleak you want Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. I'm a sucker for a debut and this possibly the best I have ever read.

Also, Hilary St.John Mandel?

Fgfgfg · 13/03/2026 23:47

Out by Natsuo Kirino. Also Grotesque and Real World.

Not enough of her books have been translated into English. Swallows has recently been published but is a very different genre to the previous three.

Evvyjb · 13/03/2026 19:28

CharlotteRumpling · 13/03/2026 07:39

Bleak, fantastic and relevant: Pat Barker's Women of Troy trilogy. Amazing retelling of the Trojan wars through the eyes of women.

Adding to this - the regeneration trilogy.

Love Pat Barker

MintoTime · 13/03/2026 08:43

What an excellent lot of recommendations, will be diving into it. My DH can’t understand why I love ‘bleak’ stories… I think I’m mostly grateful to not be living the life of the characters in The Road or Half a Yellow Sun.

Someone else on here recommended We, The Drowned by Danish writer Carsten Jensen. It’s long, and basically the story of the inhabitants of a small fishing town in Denmark through the centuries, but it’s utterly brilliant, and very bleak. I loved it.

franklymydearscarlett · 13/03/2026 07:46

If you’re open to 19th century - Zola. Try La Bête Humaine or Germinal.

CharlotteRumpling · 13/03/2026 07:39

Bleak, fantastic and relevant: Pat Barker's Women of Troy trilogy. Amazing retelling of the Trojan wars through the eyes of women.

Evvyjb · 13/03/2026 07:36

Kate Atkinson - anything, but maybe start with Life after Life
Douglas Stuart
Another vote for the Bee Sting
Pachinko
The Names
Half of a Yellow Sun, and then everything else by Adichie
Zadie Smith

Utahthecat · 13/03/2026 07:00

I think Kevin Barry's work is amazing, one of my favourite authors -I just read the Heart in Winter.

Paul Lynch's Prophet Song is brilliant, couldn't put it down and I also loved the Bee Sting.

Was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie mentioned? Loved Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun in particular....

ThroughTheRedDoor · 13/03/2026 05:51

Pleased to see Ann Patchett mentioned. I don't think I've read anything of hers i didnt enjoy.

Also yy to the Bee Sting.

What about Prophet song by Paul Lynch?

And the Sugnature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (dont be automatically put off by the fact it's by her!).

The best Barbara Kingsolver imo is Prodigal Summer. A great way in.

And some newer curveballs. Yellowface? Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow?

Tonissister · 13/03/2026 05:09

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 04/03/2026 21:46

The Inheritance of Loss - Anita Desai
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
The Patrick Melrose novels - Edward St Aubyn

I agree about Patrick Melrose novels. Brilliant. Haven't read the others.

Tonissister · 13/03/2026 05:07

Sounds like we have similar taste, as we like and dislike the same literary authors.

Have you read:
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Demon Copperhead or Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

I liked Michael K by Coetzee ( loved Disgrace)
You could also try some Nadine Gordimer novels
I loved Old Filth trilogy by Jane Gardam

Do you read short stories? The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the best books I've ever read. Her novels are good but her short stories are sublime.

SylvanMoon · 04/03/2026 22:46

You might enjoy
"There are rivers in the sky" by Elif Shafak
"Black Butterflies" by Priscilla Morris
"Home Fire" (and other titles) by Kamila Shamsie
anything by Donal Ryan

Focusispower · 04/03/2026 22:44

Oh I love almost everything on your dislike list so I’m not sure I am the right person to make a recommendation! That said, we have some overlapping likes too.

Have you read any Persephone books - Dorothy Whipple is a good author to start with.

PagesAndTea · 04/03/2026 22:39

Barbara Kingsolver
Ann Tyler
Anne Patchett
Curtis Sittenfield
Elizabeth Strout

I loved Cloud Atlas. I’d also really recommend The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard. It’s a debut novel with a really interesting concept, the writing is gorgeous and it’s a great story.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 04/03/2026 21:46

The Inheritance of Loss - Anita Desai
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
The Patrick Melrose novels - Edward St Aubyn

Dappy777 · 04/03/2026 21:25

If you want bleak, try Cormac McCarthy. He makes Thomas Hardy and Philip Larkin look like P. G. Wodehouse.

Evelyn Waugh’s early stuff is strangely bleak as well. He is funny, and he writes like an angel, but he kills his characters off in awful, grotesque ways and has a real nihilistic edge.

Joseph Conrad is another very bleak writer.

Oh, and maybe Roald Dahl. Even his children’s books are dark and sinister.

friedaddedchilli · 04/03/2026 17:18

Jim Crace. Maybe start with Harvest.

shumway · 04/03/2026 16:59

Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, Ali Smith, Curtis Sittenfeld, Sally Rooney, Louise Erdrich, Julia Armfield.

CleanOurWater · 04/03/2026 15:44

Following! Will try to add some suggestions later

notatinydancer · 04/03/2026 15:43

WhoreDing · 04/03/2026 15:20

@notatinydancer I think this prize is a bit hit and miss to be honest.

There are some absolute bangers that've won but other winners are just awful.

The last couple of years I've read all the books on the shortlists and I've been absolutely baffled as to how some of them have been shortlisted for a prize, any prize.

Agreed. I always used to read the shortlist , but some of the later books are rubbish. I just keep thinking there must be some good ones.

Original poster
WhoreDing · 04/03/2026 15:20

@notatinydancer I think this prize is a bit hit and miss to be honest.

There are some absolute bangers that've won but other winners are just awful.

The last couple of years I've read all the books on the shortlists and I've been absolutely baffled as to how some of them have been shortlisted for a prize, any prize.

OP posts:
notatinydancer · 04/03/2026 15:13

Have a look at the Women’s Prize for Fiction back catalogue.
also I have recently liked
The Covenant of Water
The Whalebone Theatre
Fresh Water for Flowers
Larchfield
Any Tracey Chevalier

Original poster
WhoreDing · 04/03/2026 15:01

OneLumen · 04/03/2026 14:56

Oh, I hope you love All My Puny Sorriws. I think it’s an astonishing novel, that deals with a dark subject from a warm, funny, life-affirming, profound perspective, in memorably good, unshowy prose.

Show quote history

Sorry - spelled it wrong in my last post!

I'm looking forward to it, thanks for recommending it.

OP posts:
OneLumen · 04/03/2026 14:56

WhoreDing · 04/03/2026 14:21

Thank you for all these recommendations

I've ordered:
> "Cloud Atlas"
> "All my Punt Sorrows"
> "Soul Tourists"
> "Days of Abandonment"

The bottom two were from another list I found. Wish me luck....

Oh, I hope you love All My Puny Sorriws. I think it’s an astonishing novel, that deals with a dark subject from a warm, funny, life-affirming, profound perspective, in memorably good, unshowy prose.

tonsattingforbjudes · 04/03/2026 14:36

Madeline Miller? Circe and Song of Achilles. I thought both were great.